Spent all day packing today. Since I had my N313 final the day before plus volunteering, writing papers, and celebrating in between, I left all the packing until today. And laundry. Nonetheless, I had everything packed by 3 PM when Mat came home from work to take me to the airport. Mat dropped me and mom off at the Portland Airport and we headed inside to check in. The woman behind the desk took one look at our online printout and told us that she couldn't send our bags straight to Osaka because we have to change airports in Seoul, South Korea. Panic started to creep in...what?! The woman behind the ticket counter continues to tell us how we would have to retrieve our bags, go through customs, get to the other airport somehow, and recheck in with our bags at the different airport. We weren't sure if we'd have enough time to complete it all in time. Panic really hit... do we or do we not board the plane? Should we risk getting stranded in Seoul? We had to step aside to think. The woman behind the ticket counter suggested we call Vayama (the company I bought the ticket through) to see what could be done but our plane to L.A. was leaving in about half an hour. We decided to board the plane anyway and that we'd call Vayama during our 5 hour layover at LAX. We did call Jon to get started on investigating how to get from one airport to the other in Seoul. Before we even got on the plane Jon had figured out that it was quite easy to get from one airport to the other, so we started to feel a little better.
Once at LAX, we headed over to the international branch of the airport. We found some food, then checked in at the Asiana ticket counter. We talked to the agent about transferring between the two airports in Seoul. He said a train leaves from the first airport for the second airport every 12 minutes and the trip takes less than an hour. We started to believe we'd be alright. I plugged in my Ipod and dived into researching our options. I found the train AREX starts at Incheon airport and goes to Gimpo airport, leaving every 12 minutes and taking about 30 mins to arrive at Gimpo. If we move through customs quickly, we would be able to make our connection during our 3 hr and 20 minute layover. We asked the Asiana ticket officer if he thought we had enough time. He thought we would, especially at 5 AM local time when we're due to be there. We were set, nothing to worry about! We boarded the plane around midnight. The Asiana Airlines flight was fantastic: very courteous staff, excellent food, too. Our dinner choices where steak or Korean dinner, I picked Korean and it was very yummy. The woman sitting next to us was very nice, even though she spoke limited english. We also met a really nice guy from Korea. Around 2 AM we finally decided to get some sleep.
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| Downtown Kyoto at dusk |
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